Wednesday, April 2, 2014

The Bar Rescue O'Face Fight Video - Where Did It Come From?

On a recent episode of Bar Rescue at O'Face Bar in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Jon Taffer decided to walk out on the bar and not do the rescue.  The breaking point was a video that Jon obtained of the owner Matt slapping one of his bartenders named Dave in the face, which was saved until the end of the episode.  This had many people wondering where Jon got the video and did he have the video all along?

First, lets look at what Jon Taffer had to say about the video:
  • A fan recently asked Jon Taffer on Twitter: "how did you get the o’face bar footage of the fights at the end? Seemed really staged and fake"
  • To which Jon responded: "Nothing is staged of faked on the show. That video came from someone who will remain unnamed."

So, Jon is going with an unnamed source for how they obtained the video.


Hit That Dive from Omaha was at the bar when the episode aired and followed up with a few interviews of the bar's employees. 
  • I asked him to find out where Jon Taffer got the video of the slap.
  • He later tweeted: "The "fight" between #ofacebar owner and his employee Dave was from their audition tape when #BarRescue wanted "MORE DRAMA". #Fake"
  • Steve from Hit That Dive also commented on the original O'Face post regarding Matt slapping Dave, stating:  "I just got this from Amanda..."Steve that was a clip from our audition tape when they wanted "more drama". AKA...staged."

Hit That Dive is saying that through talking with employees, the video was from their audition tape for Bar Rescue.


Finally, Dave, who is the bartender on the episode that got slapped by Matt has responded to multiple people about it on his Facebook page, and here are some of his comments:
  • Comment 1 - "We were all drunk for the show & that was our viewing for john taff to decide if he wanted to come or not the producers pushed us to have drama to influnce john to come . So really im gonna let someone slap me n not do nothing ha ha u know better. Thx mike ur good people also"
  • Comment 2 about him not fighting back "Omg 4 real if you dont think 4 once i would not come back with a right hook if ever slapped? Come on 4 real"
  • Comment 3 saying the fight was for show  - "Wow mike u have no reason to say that bout my boss didnt u read my post it was for show & he would never do that & mike if it did i can handle my own so no reason to have attitude towards him.
  • The owner Karen even weighed in saying, "What part don't people get that the fight wasn't real"
Dave said the producers pushed them to have drama so Jon would choose their bar to be rescued, and that the fight was not real

 
So that leaves everyone to form their own opinion on where the video came from and if it was real/fake.  

Here is mine.  When Bar Rescue comes to a city, they tell multiple bars they are under consideration and that Jon will be coming to 1 of the 3 bars (see question 3 in this link).  This probably encourages the bars to do things that they think will make for good TV in hopes of getting picked over the other bars.  Producers probably told this to O'Face, so they decided to stage not 1, but 2 fights in hopes of getting a free makeover.  This also lets Jon Taffer claim that nothing is scripted as they do not tell people what to do, but let them know they need to be interesting to be picked. 

The camera quality and sound quality on the video of Matt slapping Dave is pretty good and not too shaky as you normally see on regular Youtube videos.  Also, there is no reaction from the camera operator filming this fight (no narration or "Ohhhhh") and the other people besides Bryan in the video don't react either.  So, I will buy that it was staged and assume that Bar Rescue producers are the ones that filmed the fight.  I don't think there was an "unnamed source" that provided Jon with the video of this.  Whether Jon knew about this fight the first day or found out later could be debated I guess, but you would assume he would have known.  

If you look at the additional videos of O'Face on the Spike website like this one, you will see that Jon was genuinely giving them advice, so I don't think the bar was being used to be walked out on.  I think maybe Jon got fed up with everyone after dealing with them for 4 days, and used the fight video that they had as the excuse to stop helping them.



*If you are interesting in watching the video of the slap again, fast forward to 37:15 on the episode at the Spike website (warning - it will make you watch 5 commercials first).

50 comments:

  1. Yeah, i'm not buying that Bar Rescue filmed that fight, that dosen't sound very believable. Most of the staff there simply have no crediblity, and most customers who have been to the bar say that the episode was not an exaggeration in the least.

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  2. I think that the video was just used as the "final straw" so that Bar Rescue could get out of there. The owners and staff were ticking time bombs and were not listening to anything. It was frustrating to watch. I've never yelled at my television before, and I was screaming at it watching the way the staff was disregarding everything that Jon and his people were trying to do.

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  3. I use Firefow, and installed ad ad-blocker. That stops the ads on spike's site.

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  4. Even if the fight was staged, the crew at O'Face still managed to prove how trashy they are IRL.

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  5. Good for you. Let's try and be relevant.

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  6. Does anyone think the producers do all this bs & make Jon believe it's real & he actually has no idea things like that are happening behind his back? Or is it all actually real?

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  7. Regardless of who brought out that video or that the owner was asked to produce a staged horrible video, the owner "accidentally" showed his true colors. No employer in their right frame of mind would even remotely entertain the idea of paying an employee higher wages to beat up another employee. As it is, the only person who made any sense was Bryan aka "Syck". Even Cerissa confessed that she and Amanda were basically pals never mind what happened. And this brings up another question about some of the staff. Why didn't Cerissa and Dave leave and find another bar to work at?

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  8. I think most of it is real, you can't fake the level of dysfunction and stupidity this staff obviously had.

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  9. Nicholas WurmlingerApril 15, 2014 at 10:59 PM

    Regardless of whether the fight was staged or not there is no excuse for an owner to hit an employee. None. The comments after that about throwing an employee through a window for a raise are even more outlandish. I can buy that some of the stuff can be staged but watching the episode you have to understands Jon's mounting frustration with the bars owner's and staff. Nothing was getting done. Period. You can stage fights and stuff to get the show there but that amount of dysfunction and laziness that was displayed during the show was fraying nerves. They didn't deserve to be rescued end of story.

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  10. I live blocks away from that bar. Nothing but drunks and doper's. Across from the Golden a Spike
    Monument.

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  11. If you notice during the fight that was supposedly secretly caught on camera, both girls are "mic'ed" up. So obviously they knew Bar Rescue was there. Also although some of the "secret" surveillance video is from their so-called hidden cameras, much of it is obviously filmed by a camera crew

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  12. You're assuming that people who own a bar that has a 1-star rating on Yelp, who allow fights in their bars while on camera and are known in-town by locals for being that way in real life, actually care whether they are mic'd up when they are throwing punches at one another.

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  13. It's a pretty sad excuse staged or not all the way around.

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  14. Jo mama! Ohhhhhh!!

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  15. it is relevant. makes it so you can watch the slap w/o seeing the ads. works for youtube and everything else too....but i guess you like watching ads online

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  16. The owner Karen 'weighed in'. Hahah love it

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  17. What a coincidence..Kitchen Nightmares ended a season with Ramsay not saving the restaurant...then all of a sudden..Jon Taffer won't rescue a bar..lol.

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  18. read somewhere that the woman knew she was gonna get fired so she approached producers with the idea of a "fight" that gets her fired. ANd the bell the wife always rang to summons a drink, supposedly producers gave her that too.

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  19. Dave needs hooked on phonics.

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  20. NotaRagingRepublicanMay 28, 2014 at 8:14 PM

    Your source sounds impeccable. Was it the wife?

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  21. NotaRagingRepublicanMay 28, 2014 at 8:30 PM

    The fights at O'Face looked totally real. Its not easy to fake that kind of anger (the slap) or intoxication (the catfight); if it was acting then they should be in movies.

    Mr. Air Force and his wife proved without a doubt that they are unworthy of getting tens of thousands of dollars of new furniture and fixtures, I look forward to their future bankruptcy.

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  22. NotaRagingRepublicanMay 28, 2014 at 8:39 PM

    Cerissa and Dave didn't leave because "working" at O'Face isn't WORK. Its getting paid to go to a party in a dive bar and drink, and all you have to do is pour a few drinks or move something inedible from a freezer to an oven and then to a paper plate.

    A lot of people will put up with a lot of abuse to have a gig like that.

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  23. I did get to see the fb page of Cerissa and she sounds like she's perfectly ok with it all. From the given info so far, it sounds like Cerissa and Dave would have trouble finding employment at a bar if they had to go.

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  24. oface is run by punks they would not last 10 sec. in maine the wife is a pig, matt is a jerkoff ,there girl a fat pig the type who thinks her shit dont stink ,she can never make it in the real world.totaly worthless people who need there ass kicked.

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  25. "The show is fake and made us look bad, by this video WE OURSELVES faked and made ourselves look bad". I have no doubt that they faked the video, but if you're dumb enough to fake a video that makes you and your business look bad, and then blame a show for making you look bad....... "Hey we got drunk and faked a bunch of stuff to make our business look bad" shows that you are worse at running a business than what the show made it look like.

    It would be like telling a job you are trying to get at a company to not judge you on your grades because you aren't really stupid, but just faked it to get bad grades on purpose. Well that's more stupid to do that than it is to just be stupid.

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  26. NotaRagingRepublicanJune 24, 2014 at 9:43 PM

    Its likely Draftex installed the new system early in the Bar Rescue, before John decided the bar wasn't worthy of saving. Once in, there isn't any point in tearing it out.

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  27. Updates of that kind happen after John starts tearing down and rebuilding the bar itself...not before. Like I said, something is really fishy.

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  28. Websites make money from ads. Real cool to have an ad blocker.

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  29. That fight was so staged. Come on people, wise up.

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  30. staged or not....some people have no business in business. losing bucks by the bucketful in the bar business is just plain stupidity. my dad and mom owned bars for years and always made money. they weren't there to drink and party...they were old school....there to make bucks. i knew how many draft beers you could get from a keg before i could swim. hey kids, it is a business.

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  31. I would imagine that they would put in the draft system in order to supply whatever amount of beer was needed for the stress test and other kinds of training as well as providing the liquor for for those days. The point was to get them out of the hole they were in so I would highly doubt that they expected the bar to pay for everything out of pocket. Something else that's fishy here, why would Draftex just disclose that kind of information about a client to anyone, let alone some stranger inquiring via e-mail? Very fishy indeed.

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  32. Jon Taffer's Butt FunnelJuly 15, 2014 at 1:00 AM

    I thought the outdoors fight in the episode of LongShots (that they showed about eight times) was equally as fake and staged. I watched that episode after this one and reading this blog and also have to believe it came from the audition tape or was completely fake. When Jon is calling out the people involved later inside the bar, while he is yelling his ass off they cut to a shot of the employees and on two separate occasions, two separate employees are smiling or look like they're trying to hold back laughter.

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  33. and yet, the restaurant in question on Kitchen Nightmares is still in business. Amy is riding off her appearance on the show... people go there just to say they survived Crazy Amy.

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  34. Doesn't make them any less incompetent.

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  35. Do anyone know what happen to Bryant(syck)?

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  36. i swear everyone in that bar was a fucking joke . the wife and husband were beyond ignorant , she was just a spoiled brat and basically they wanted crud and rude/fun people in their bar , not goody goody like syck and the other girl . the part where they kept Amanda was enough for me to punch everyone in their f'ing faces

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  37. LOL !! im sorry but i can see you yelling at ur TV while chillin on the couch .

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  38. i will be rooting for it .

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  39. Something that always stands out to me on BR is the supposedly hidden camera footage which is clearly shot hand held with a high quality camera by a camera man in the room. An example of this is the Long Shots episode where Jon leaves the bar after his initial talk with owner and staff so that he can then watch them without their knowledge. What he sees is supposedly candid in-fighting. But it would be obvious to everybody in the room there was a camera man with a camera and cables, etc..

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  40. So what they are saying is " they were lying to us on tv and most everything was staged for the show" Well let me suggest this " Now that America has seen your sad sack degenerate life style, why shouldn't we believe your lying now and staging your responses to save your reputations"???

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  41. That slap was real you could see Daves whole demeanor changed to being embarrassed the second he got disrespected. in fact you can see his embarrassment when Taffer showed them the video. Then Matt felt so embarrassed when he saw it he couldn't even think, became defensive, and told Taffer "i'm not scared" for absolutely no reason lol

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  42. Yeah a couple of drunks who got what they deserved. I heard they lost their license. Losers!!!

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  43. Yes, it is cool to have an ad blocker. Only a chump wouldn't.

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  44. The only thing i am stumped on is why is Matt the bar owner and especially (A Military Public Figure) acting like a total dipshit? Does he not realize that his military background is going to see all this garbage not to mention any kind of future or present reputation! Buncha a rednecks and nothing close to business owners.

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  45. Here's my take: I have no doubt that owners do some things they might not normally do in order to get on the show...however, Jon clearly had NO intentions of walking out on the bar. This means that CLEARLY this bar was not worth rescuing and such regardless of whether the fight was staged or not. This is reality TV and while I believe the things that Jon Taffer says, there has to be some level of "staged" in an reality show. I do believe though that MOST of Bar Rescue is indeed real..remember, editors are going to pick the "bad stuff" to air on TV!!!

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  46. I don't believe that for a hot minute

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  47. He smashed out an ex girlfriend's car windows and slashed her tires in the parking lot of the establishment.

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